Gender Descriptive Names
 

On more than a few occasions I have come across people during my audits that have names that are normally only given to someone of the opposite sex. This bothers me in that I misidentify the person as either he or she. The person at the other end of the phone usually promptly corrects me but it is an annoyance either way.

So when you have a daughter is the first name that comes to mind Theodore? It just seems different to name a baby girl that. I came across someone today with the name spelled as I did above; to my surprise it was a woman not a man.

Out of curiosity how many here will name their child something that indicates whether or not they are male or female?

I won't make it ambiguous like: Ashley, Ash, Pat, Bobby, Bob, Bobbie, Bobbi, Jean, Jo, Joe, Dan, Danni, Danny, Dannie, etc.

Nice and distinctive like Isabella for my girl, and Bernard for my boy.

In middle school, someone I knew was named Lynsey. He was male, but teachers would often mistake him for a girl when in a new class. Names like Taylor or Alex can also apply to either gender.

I suppose I'll try to choose names that are easily associated with males or females, but I'm not entirely sure yet.

I've heard of Lynsey as a male name before. I guess in some parts of the world that is considered an ambiguous name.

There was a male character on the TV show Angel with the given name "Lynsey". It's not entirely unheard of. It's also not common, but these days who can even tell what are considered to be male names or female names.

More to the point, who cares? The only time it really matters is when contemplating the possibility of being intimate with a person, and I flatter myself that when that time arrives, I can usually tell the difference.

Ash is good for both genders, I've seen ash...

I know a guy whose name was Ashlee.

Meh, I've seen it plenty of times where you get people confused like that where you think it's a male or female but it's not.

One of the department managers is named Lindsay as the first name, but he is infact, a male.

Other names that come to mind are "Morgan and Chris". I've met girls with the name "Chris", not Christine. As well, Jan is a pretty ambiguous name, but mostly Jen is more female.

But would you name your children those names knowing it would cause confusion later in life?

It would be a cop-out on my part to say that I don't plan to father any children, even though that is true. The answer is that I'd give them names that I happen to like. I don't think that the problems caused by ambiguous names are very serious, but the names that I would be likely to name any hypothetical children that I might have are not very ambiguous. If I happened to like a name that was ambiguous, though, I'd give that name to a child of mine without hesitation.

If we're talking about names I think just don't sound like a name for a person, though... that's a different story. I think that Frank Zappa's childrem are most unfortunate, as is that one son of David Bowie. That's just not fair. For the record, since some people may not know, the names in question are Zappa Zappa, Dweezil Zappa, Moon Unit Zappa, and Zowie Bowie. That's tantamount to child-abuse.

That confusion can actually be good. I remember reading a study once that said that people with names that sounded black had more trouble getting interviews than people with the exact same qualifications and a white-sounding name. I imagine the same would hold true across sexes, and having a gender-ambiguous name shields you from that.

That is an interesting take on it BlueMikey. Then again I think the opposite could be the case as well, if they think you are a man when they call you in for an interview they might be a little surprised to find out your not what they thought (all sexist possibilities aside). People don't tend to think things all the way through when they are caught off guard.

Soluzar: Well at least he didn't name his kid Google... I agree though, those are some horrible names.

Isn't that illegal to do? Oh we didn't interview cause your name was more blackish then whiteish.

Yes that is very illegal... however it is hard to prove in court.

We have a guy named Shannon at the office. Before he started, everyone assumed he was a woman until I corrected them.

As for my own kids, I'm not going to pick something unusual or easily mistaken. BlueMikey might be on to something, but race and gender are two different things. So Steve turns out to be black instead of white; that's something subtle and not something most people would admit to caring about. However, if I was expecting to hire Donni thinking she was a hot chick and it turned out she was a dude, I might be a little more put off.

It's funny you should mention this. Last night I met a girl named (And I couldn't POSSIBLY make this up) Latrine. Why? Her mom thought it sounded cute, I guess. :tpg:

I bet she's the center of all the toilet jokes.

My best friend is a guy named Shannon...he's always been so self-conscious of it, at one point he was telling all his teachers to call him 'Shane.' I refused, and told him that there are very masculine guys named Shannon (like Shannon Dixon...although I don't think he's well-known in football, really).

My cousins are girls named Harrigan and MacKenna (both Scotch-Irish surnames), and they go by.... Mac and Harry.
>___<

It's so...un-feminine.

I can only see the confusion as a positive if the name sounded stereotypically white male, unlike ambiguations like Ashley.

I dislike ambiguous names myself, and it's even worse if it's in a language I'm unfamiliar in, like Indian names. I just have no clue if the person addressed is male or female.

This is why my parents named me "Elliott". It's sad, but true.

It all depends on how much I like the name. Ambiguous or not, if I really like the name, the baby's getting it.

That said, I'm not much a fan of a lot of ambiguous names.

Not so much gender related, but can you name your kid "Number One", "Number Two", or "Test Subject 1183X2?"

COME HERE NUMBER TWO! YA GOT SOME 'SPLANING TA DO!"

How do you tell which gender they are then, yama? Or it is just guess work...

There is an Irish person at one of the facilities I have to call. My coworkers and I argue as to whether or not this person is a man or a woman. The name is Kay Keeler, the voice however has a strong Irish accent and is sort of deep for a woman (at least I think so) and because it would be rude and out of the line of our duties to ask, we are still unsure. He says it is a woman because of the name, I say it is a man because of the voice.

I like the name Warick, and hopefully no one will think that's a girl's name. =P

I find it rather odd when someone's name is Ashley, and they're a guy. But I've always been like that. :p

Maybe it is because I am not from the same area as yourself but I don' think Warick is even remotely close to a "girls" name.